MIES (Switzerland) - Since making the move to enter Basketball Champions League Season X, powered by Ameresco SUNEL, Joventut Badalona have looked nothing short of imperious.
In all of their first three games, they scored first and led for the rest of the game.
Their first lead change came this week on the road at Bursaspor Basketbol when their opponents led for 2:57 of the 40 minutes as Joventut picked up another impressive 79-68 win.
Their opponents, Bursaspor - who came through the QRT to reach the Regular Season - proved just how tough life can be in the BCL, as they fell to 0-4 for the season.
However, life shouldn't be all doom and gloom for Bursaspor as they put up a display that showed they are much better than their current record suggests.
Let's dive in and take a look at how the game played out tactically.
Never drop your guard
Joventut have the 2nd best Net Rating in the BCL so far, having been 25.7 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents to date, so it goes without saying that Bursaspor needed to be at their very best to even get close to Daniel Miret's team.
And, in fairness, they did pose Joventut the most difficult questions they have faced to date in the BCL. 79 points in the lowest points total, and the 19 assists they were held to were also a BCL season-low.
That last stat highlights a key part of Bursaspor's defensive plan.
Joventut's roster is stacked with outstanding passers of the ball. Ricky Rubio, the playmaker, needs no introduction, but there is passing ability from 1-12 on this roster, with Ante Tomic also leading all centers with five assists per game in the BCL.
If a team doesn't want to allow their opponents to find their passing game flow, they will usually look to employ more conservative defensive schemes on screening actions.
This could be opting to switch or using some kind of "Drop" coverage that involves the screener's defender dropping below the level of the screen until the player being screened can recover back to the ball and defend the action 2v2.
This was exactly what Bursaspor elected to do... Unfortunately for them, Joventut's playmakers had the answers.
As you see in the video above, Rubio is so good at changing the speed and angle as he turns the corner around the screen that he was able to consistently force the drop action into a 2v1 against the dropping big.
From there, his patience and composure allowed him to find Ante Tomic on deep drops, right under the basket. Nobody is stopping the big Croatian if he catches it that deep.
Sidebar: Rubio and Tomic are already starting to stake their claim as the most deadly 1-2 punch in the BCL. They already look like they have been playing together for years, when they only shared the same locker room for nine games total.
It wasn't just Rubio and Tomic who were able to punish the drop coverage.
What you see in the next clip below is Cameron Hunt playing the same game of cat and mouse with the 2v1 advantage against the drop coverage. Only on this occasion, the Bursaspor big, #35, Landry Nnoko decided to protect the pass back to the deep roll.
Hunt delayed the decision as late as possible and punished it with an easy layup.
And as if dealing with Rubio, Tomic, and Hunt wasn't enough of a headache, Joventut still have the option of running the offense through the Swedish duo of Ludde Hakanson and Simon Birgander.
What you see in that video above is two clips of Hakanson putting on a clinic about attacking the drop coverage.
In the first clip, going to his left, he used a "Hostage" dribble to snake back and keep his defender behind him before finding Birgander with a 1v1 in the paint.
Then, for the second clip, going to his right, he widened the angle to force the separation between Nnoko and Birgander, before finding his countryman for the easy push shot.
Bursaspor are better than 0-4
We said this was the toughest fight that Joventut have faced in the BCL this season, and it wasn't just lip service. Bursaspor really looked like a team capable of winning this game.
Artur Konontsuk's ability to stretch the floor caused Joventut all manner of headaches, and when they held their Spanish opponents to just 10 points in the 3rd quarter, it really looked like they might have found a solution to winning the game.
Brandon Childress had a near triple-double with 14 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds, as Joventut struggled to find a way to stop him pulling the strings for Nenad Markovic's team.
Plays like the one below just showed us that with Childress and Nnoko, they have a lethal 1-2 punch of their own over there.
Are you not entertained?
For all their ruthless precision, Joventut are also a team that plays with a ton of joy and flair. Almost certainly the best representation of that is watching what happens to his teammates when Ante Tomic catches the basketball.
This team moves really well without the ball, regardless, but when Tomic gets the rock, they all really come alive with cuts to the basket and slides into shooting positions.
I mean, wouldn't you if you know that all you had to do was get open because you know that your big guy is sure to find you?
It really is a cheat code for this team.